I've recently found the Mulholland Drive Pilot on the Internet. Has anyone seen it?

I thought it was good, but really slow for a TV show. Still, it goes in a complete different direction and I would have liked to see what Lynch would have done after that. Some scenes were really good, like the one between the two cops, or the one showing the Hollywood sign and it would have been great in the movie.

Another good one, when Badalamenti's character finds out that his car had been smashed by Theroux's character, that was funny.

I've had it for a while, but the poor quality prevented me from watching it completely. I skipped through the whole thing and it seemed very similar to the movie. But I might give it a go, now that you mentioned that there are indeed quite some differences.

It must be common knowledge by now that DL doesn't believe in works in progress, deleted scenes etc and that the finished film is as he intends it to be seen. I'd rather not watch the pilot because I love the film as is, and bootleggers irritate me, but I can see the attraction.

There isn't a DL fan on earth who doesn't know it's out there and this thread hasn't told anybody anything they don't already know.

Seriously though, I understand why Lynch wants the Pilot not to be distributed and I completely respect that.

However, the fact is that it is out and there's not much anyone can do to change that.

What I do think is important is that those that have seen it please feel free to discuss it. To see what Lynch had to work with and the whole metamorphasis of what the Pilot ultimately became in itself is a very amazing and beautiful thing in itself. Speaking of which, if you haven't already done so, check out the Revised Edition of Lynch on Lynch.

I only ask that you please not use this message board to distribute copies or post links to those that are selling copies.

Well, I suppose I was the DL fan on earth who did not know of the existence of such a thing, because I was surprised when I saw it online, I never thought this existed. Anyway, it was pretty interesting watching it.

Don't worry imhotep and teopeaks, I didn't know either. I, too, thought the first 90 minutes of the movie was the pilot! And I thought it was awesome and was disappointed (being friendly as the offical word is around here) with ABC execs for not pursuing it.

I worship MULHOLLAND DR. I watch it a couple of times a year. It has had a huge influence on my own writing. Make that DL has had a huge influence through several works including especially MD. I respect his wish not to view it.

But the idea that there is another version out there, yipes! It's hard to resist. But being a dedicated DL fan, I won't search it out. Unless the psychic energy releasing gnome who lives behing my fav coffee shop pops out and stares me in the face. Then I may not be able to help myself. The gnome thing is very unlikely.

So... if ML was made into a television series, would it have the impact on TV that Twin Peaks did?
I think maybe so, but I haven't seen the original pilot version of ML so I can't say that in confidence. But I think that film would have made for an exciting series, that could even rival TP in its ground-breaking mystery (but maybe not in its humor).

It suprised me that it was filmed for ABC after Lynch and Frost had troubles with them in doing TP.

I read in WIP that many of the same people were at ABC for MD as when TP was on. Just because something doesn't work out doesn't mean that the suits won't work with a creative type again. However, the experience with MD burned DL pretty throughly on TV. Too bad as I see DL doing better making limited series for TV. This may be a coming thing anyway. A limited series is what they run in the UK, Canada or Down Under instead of a "full" series of 22 or 24 eps like we have in the US. They don't have season 1 or 2 they have series 1 or 2 these seem to be 6 to 13 eps. It keeps things fresh, people can work together for years without hating each other when it's done and the talent gets plenty of variety in their work. Plus they they have a regular gig. Not bad. Now if we can convince a Net to put me in charge...

I, too, didn't know it was out there until I read this thread (and once I'd read the thread, it took me all of 20 seconds to find it... )

As a curiosity, it's a fascinating thing to watch, and rather different to the relevant section of the film in that many sequences are either not there, or shortened. (I would suspect that if the first, longer, edit of the pilot leaked out that this would be much closer to how it was in the film.)

I can't say it's the sort of thing I'll watch again and again, but it's certainly worth watching, even if the picture quality is a little poor.

Well, the same suits at ABC were there when the pilot was greenlighted, but by the time we got to the mix, most everyone was gone. Disney acquired ABC from Capital Cities Broadcasting in late '98, and by the time it was done, almost nobody originally involved with the show was left. It was like having to prove the concept all over again, and the Disney people did not like the show. David's first cut of the Pilot was about 120 minutes, but they made him cut it to 88 minutes ("We sell 16 minutes an hour of advertising time!"). He hated that.

For those of you in search of the Pilot, it is of fairly bad quality, only Angelo playing synth music, hardly any effects, Dave's butcher cut of 88 minutes. Some who have watched the Pilot have told me that it ruined the movie for them, so I ask that you consider that aspect. The whole purpose of the Pilot was to spin a lot of mysterious threads that would take a long time to get through. It is not a complete story by any means.

John Neff wrote:For those of you in search of the Pilot, it is of fairly bad quality, only Angelo playing synth music, hardly any effects, Dave's butcher cut of 88 minutes. Some who have watched the Pilot have told me that it ruined the movie for them, so I ask that you consider that aspect.

It is for reasons such as these that I chose not to watch the pilot, despite having the opportunity to do so some time ago... Sure, it would be 'interesting' to see the work-in-progress, however the magic of the fully formed work would almost certainly be destroyed.

As an artist producing audio works for both myself and other artists I try to avoid rough mixes being circulated (beyond the artists in question) for exactly the same reasons...